The Mitteler Rebbe—Rabbi Dovber Schneuri רבי דובער שניאורי — האדמו״ר האמצעי
the second rebbe of Chabad; under him the court settled in Lubavitch, and the place gave the movement its name
He was born and died on the same day of the year—9 Kislev, fifty-four years apart. The son of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi; he took the leadership of the Chabad chasidim after his father's death in 1812.
Lubavitch. He settled in the townlet of Lubavitch in the Mogilev province, and the court stood there a hundred and two years—until the First World War. That is why the movement is called Lubavitch, though it began in Liadi.
How he taught. The father wrote tersely, leaving the work to the reader; the son unfolded the same teaching at length, over pages, and the chasidim called it "wide rivers". His main books are Sha'ar HaYichud, Imrei Binah, Derech Chaim, and Kuntres HaHitpaalut on how contemplation differs from excitement.
The arrest. In 1826 he was seized on a denunciation and soon released; 10 Kislev is to this day a day of liberation in Chabad. It is the second such day in the court's history: twenty-eight years earlier his father came out of prison.
Hebron. In 1823 he bought houses and land in Hebron and sent chasidim there to settle. The Chabad community of Hebron stood from then until the pogrom of 1929.
He died on 9 Kislev 1827 in Nezhin.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Sha'ar HaYichud and Kuntres HaHitpaalut — his way of teaching: unfolded where the father is terse
- The Chabad tradition of 10 Kislev — the arrest of 1826 and the release
Scholarship
- Jewish Encyclopedia (1906): Baer (Dob) of Lubavitch — the dates, Lubavitch, the purchase of houses in Hebron
Basis: documents and evidence.